Congress Continues Hearings on Antitrust and Privacy Issues

Over the last two weeks, Congress has continued its investigations into antitrust and privacy issues with multiple hearings by both the Senate and the House. On March 5, the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights held a hearing titled, “Does America Have a Monopoly Problem? Examining Concentration and Competition in the US Economy.” During the hearing, multiple senators focused on the dominance of a few tech companies and their effect on the American economy and society. Meanwhile, on March 12, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “GDPR & CCPA: Opt-ins, Consumer Control, and the Impact on Competition and Innovation.” In addition to Alastair Mactaggart, the Chairman of Californians for Consumer Privacy, witnesses in the first panel included representatives from Google, Intel, DuckDuckGo and Mapbox. Much of the discussion focused on Google’s data collection practices and the differences between opt-out and opt-in regimes. At the same time, Representative Greg Walden (R-OR) discussed the broad immunities afforded to online platforms by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act during his opening remarks at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on March 12, “Legislating to Safeguard the Free and Open Internet.”